The Academy Award nominations have been announced and there were not too many shock and awe moments. When it comes to snubs, there is one that is seismic in its permeation throughout Hollywood. Arrival’s lead actress Amy Adams did not hear her name called this morning by the Academy of Motion Pictures. How can a movie have eight nominations, including Best Picture, and it not reward its lead actress whose film she made her own?
This will go down as the biggest snub of 2017 and one could argue that it was a snub that was made possible by a surprise. Meryl Streep scored her 20th nomination for her work in Florence Foster Jenkins. It was a solid film, but in no way was it an Academy Award nomination-worthy turn by our greatest actress. At this point it seems like Oscar will nominate Streep if she shows up and reads a phone book. Every single one of the other four nominees deserves to be there, but Streep… sorry, no. This category belongs to Adams. Heck, we even thought she might win over Emma Stone for her work in La La Land and be one of the more welcomed upsets of Oscar 2017. Instead, we get Streep. Again.
There was one other actress that did not hear her name called that we think should have been. Taraji P. Henson not getting nominated for her work in Hidden Figures is quite a snub. We think in this spot, her Supporting Actress nod was taken by Viola Davis. In what world is Davis a supporting actress in Fences? She is the lead! Paramount knows that Davis can win in Supporting Actress and likely would lose as a Lead Actress, so that is how they presented her… and they were right. Unfortunately, that cost Henson her rightful spot on the Supporting Actress list.
Some folks believe that Finding Dory should have landed on the Best Animated Feature list and therefore is a snub. We disagree. Finding Dory is a fine film, but it is not necessarily Best Animated Feature worthy. You want a snub in that category? Look no further than The Little Prince. The film adaptation of the iconic book was one of the best animated movies of this year, and deserves to be on that list. And while we’re talking animated movies, you want a snub that we feel is worthy of that title? How about Best Animated Feature nominee Zootopia not getting a Best Picture nod? The Disney release was that good. It went beyond animated film and should be among the Best Picture nominees.
One last snub… Weiner failed to hear its named called for Best Documentary. That was a shocker.
Now, when it comes to surprises… Our biggest is that Mel Gibson scored a nod for Best Director for Hacksaw Ridge. Yes, he deserves it. There is no question. What he accomplished with that film is astonishing. He did it for a third of the budget that he had for Braveheart and completed the film in under 40 days. Astonishing. But, given his previously vocalized hatred for women and Jews and seeing as those two populations make up a huge segment of the artists in Hollywood, we were sure that the actor-director would be hard-pressed to ever score a nomination from the Academy again. Boy, were we wrong. But that’s OK. I’m glad we live in a country where people are given a second chance. Everyone deserves one, as long as they atone for their past sins and make movement towards a better life. One could argue that Gibson has done that and his artistry is one that deserves to be honored.
Now, some have said that Michael Shannon scoring a Best Supporting Actor nod for Nocturnal Animals and Ruth Negga getting a nod for her stunning work in Loving are surprises. But, not us here at Oscar Watch. In fact, we predicted both.
But, what was a surprise was The Lobster scoring a Best Original Screenplay nomination. It was so well deserved, given that it was one of the most “original” screenplays that we saw brought to life this year.
One last big surprise – we know that Hollywood loves to reward itself. So the fact that La La Land scored a slew of nominations was not surprising. What was shocking was the fact that it secured 14 nods and tied a record for the most ever. We know that Hollywood loved La La Land, but had no idea they loved it that much!